Tag: media

Make Your Blogger Relationships Work Harder

Posted on by Kaitlyn Kotlowski

Bloggers aren’t just an online source anymore. The big ones, the “super-bloggers,” are expanding their media empire from small screens to large ones and virtual relationships to “real world” with tremendous PR potential for your clients.  You can tap into this power by following some timely tips.

Effective blogger relations can expose your client to bigger and better audiences, making them part of meaningful conversations that ultimately translate to increased awareness. This is particularly true now that certain bloggers own more of the media landscape than ever before. Many broadcast outlets book local bloggers as contributors, and top-tier newspapers accept contributions from regional bloggers.

To help leverage relations with the “super-bloggers,” take advantage of these timely tips:

It’s not about you. Bloggers don’t care about your brand’s agenda, period.  Their main focus is their audience. So when pitching an idea or product, get to know that audience – what do they want to hear about, what product might be useful for them, etc. You can’t always tell who the audience is by the blog’s name. Do the homework — it’s never worth ruining your relationship with someone over a lazy pitch.

Keep track of everything! Keep accurate records of the following: which of your story ideas a blogger has covered in the past, the last time you spoke, what approaches have worked well and what fell flat. When it comes to family / parenting bloggers I find it’s helpful to know personal details such as if they have children, and the children’s ages – this information is particularly valuable when pitching toys and other children’s products.

Think beyond the blog. Make sure that whatever idea you’re pitching is not only appropriate for the blog – but for expanded opportunities as well. Visualize the potential broadcast segment or event inclusion and outline ways to make it work. Blogger promotions and partnerships should also be taken into consideration – these are mostly pay to play, and it’s important to do your research and keep in mind that not every blogger is right for a paid promotional partnership.

Keep talking (and helping). Keep the conversation going! Check in on editorial calendar opportunities that may be a perfect fit for your client(s), upcoming events that might be worth attending or sponsoring, any Twitter chats that you and/or your clients should participate in, etc.

With a little homework and a solid strategy, these regional superstars could help elevate your client’s brand.  What are your tips for developing relationships with bloggers?

Blog Roll: Blogs I Read And Why

Posted on by lauren

There’s no better way to wind down after a long week than to catch up on some reading – blog reading. Sure, I love a great magazine or newspaper, but blogs provide just enough content to keep me interested and they also help me with my job in Public Relations. Blogs have become a go-to source of information from different points of view unhindered by editorial boards or media policies, that’s why their perspective is often so fresh and different. Here are some of my favorite blogs to read and why:

NYC PR Girls
I largely attribute my choice to pursue a career in PR to this blog (in New York, nonetheless; nowhere else is PR so fast-paced). Aimed at young professionals, it offers tips on PR fundamentals, style, professional development and even guides to NYC. I find that I always pick up something new from this blog, it’s definitely a must-read for PR girls (and guys)!

Smart, Pretty and (less) Awkward
The concept is simple: Author Molly Ford includes a tip on how to be smarter, prettier and less awkward in every post, accompanied by a meaningful quote. Some tips include fun factoids, beauty quick-fixes, how to handle unusual social situations and organization pointers. Every so often Molly will even include coupon codes; always exciting. The blog posts are short, sweet and leave my day a little brighter; a definite pick-me-up!

THXTHXTHX
Leah Diedrich’s mother taught her to always write thank you notes, so she does – to everything. From foods to cities, the good and the bad, Leah writes a handwritten thank you note to all of it. Some of it gets outlandish, but always heartwarming and sincere. Leah’s perspective reminds me to never take anything for granted and to think of everything as a learning experience. I also try and write handwritten thank you notes in my career whenever possible.

PR Newser
When it comes to industry news, PR Newser should be a bookmark on your browser. PR Newser blends pop culture, current events, jobs and relevant research findings into one entertaining blog. It’s a great way to catch up what’s going on that week without flipping through as many sources. Also, posting content about a wide range of PR, advertising and marketing firms gives readers the opportunities to peep into other careers—great for professional goal setting!

Are there any other blogs that get you through the day? Tell us about some of your favorites!

SCOTUS And What It Means When The Media Get It Wrong

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

Media mistakes happen all the time. Publicists joke about mangled names and massacred quotes, and even The New York Times – especially The New York Times – is regularly skewered over its errors and omissions.

But occasionally media get it wrong in a big way, – an unforgivable, historically indelible, “Dewey Beats Truman” way. That’s what happened when the Supreme Court announced its ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Healthcare Act. Both CNN and Fox News reported the decision inaccurately, and not just for a second, and not only in the details. CNN’s banner blared “Supreme Ct. Kills Individual Mandate” as wire reports from Bloomberg, the AP, and other networks carried a different headline. Within seconds, the story that Obamacare was dead was shared, tweeted, posted, hashtagged and live-blogged. CNN didn’t correct the story until 12 long minutes after its initial inaccurate report.

For a fascinating play-by-play on how this happened, see Tom Goldstein’s account in SCOTUSblog.  Goldstein explains that technology was a contributing factor to the confusion;  the Court declined to email the decision to reporters, confident that its servers would hold up against the onslaught of those with a stake in the outcome. Of course the servers crashed, and the only people in possession of the decision for a full half hour were those holding the paper version in the press room in the courthouse. Incredibly, even POTUS was in the dark.

So, a small group of experienced journalists were in a race to be first to take it all in and report on the fly. If you didn’t read beyond the decision’s first page – where the Government loses the Commerce argument – you might conclude that the mandate was overturned. The next page had the language upholding its constitutionality as a tax. But at least two respected journalists didn’t get there before the wrong story lit up the web.

The lapse may be unforgivable, but it’s certainly understandable. Yet, what’s more interesting is how CNN and Fox handled their respective gaffes. Fox, led by Megyn Kelly, was quick to spot the error, and Fox’s less integrated digital machine didn’t run with the story as swiftly. And Fox had a different, almost casual attitude about the reporting of the story on their air. This is breaking news, breaking news is dramatic, confusing, breathless, and this is the way the story comes out. No embarrassment, no apology, just real-time reporting. (Kind of a Republican attitude, some would say.)
C

NN, on the other hand, felt more married to its reporting given the tight integration of its digital content and what seemed like a fear of having to flip-flop right back again if they were wrong in their correction.

So the on-air talent simply vamped, hedged, and filled time, promising more information as it happened, pointing out “conflicting reports” and using words like “may have been struck down” only to correct its report at last. The reaction internally was said to be “apoplectic.” (Isn’t that just like Democrats, always beating themselves up?)

The whole thing was more exciting than an episode of “The Newsroom” and will be parsed and debated for years. It tells us a lot about ourselves and the news business today, – the highly questionable premium placed on being first (if only by seconds) to break news, our distaste for complexity, for waiting, or even, it seems, for reading.

We were also biased. Not for the outcome we wanted, but for the one we were sure we’d already figured out. Just about everybody, from the talking heads to the insiders, both progressives and conservatives, actually believed the mandate would be ruled unconstitutional, based on earlier arguments and weeks of aggressive punditry. It was overkill.

I was embarrassed for CNN and Fox. Jon Stewart’s sendup of the gaffe is particularly painful, and particularly hilarious. But then I read why this would never have happened in Canada, according to The Edmonton Journal.

The Canadian Supreme Court holds lock-ups for journalists, where they can read through the decision and write their stories at a non-frantic pace. All the cell phones go into little Ziploc bags for the duration and the reporters all file at the same time.

File at the same time? How un-American! Where’s the fun in that? Despite the sturm and drang over the errors, I prefer the mess and the drama, the incoherency and the backpedaling – and, yes, the recriminations and self-analysis. Lessons have been learned, and they’ll need to be learned again. To paraphrase Comedy Central, let’s not make a federal case out of it.

Savvy PR Spokesperson Selection

Posted on by Marijane Funess

In PR we are often called upon to help a client find a third-party expert to get its message to the masses. It is the agency’s task to define the spokesperson role, vet candidates and negotiate terms of an agreement. We like to follow 3 “golden rules” of savvy spokesperson selection to ensure success.

Fit like a glove (or very close) We look for spokespeople who have an authentic connection to the product or service being pitched. For example, in securing a spokesperson for a weight loss product, the assignment called for an expert who was not only well-versed in “diet-speak” but actually needed to trim down. We also ask ourselves if the person appeals to the demographic and is a “believer” in the product or service.

Credentials are key In today’s competitive media market, a spokesperson who perfectly aligns with your client’s product or service is not enough to effectively spread the word. We look for sought-after spokespeople who are interviewed often, who have their own media contacts and their own creative ideas for TV segments and print pieces. It also helps bolster credibility if the spokesperson has penned any previous articles or written a book or blog on the subject.

(Many happy) Returns on the Investment Investigate all fees associated with the spokesperson agreement so there are no surprises. For example, most contracted spokespeople have a “day rate” for working days and a lesser rate for travel days. These often include expected incidentals such as meals, but can also include some that require finessing such as the spokesperson that wanted their child care paid for. Experienced spokespeople will charge for hair and make-up and transportation which may really tax a budget unless you are prepared.

What else do you look for when securing a spokesperson?

When Social Media Goes Too Far

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

The social web can be a wonderful thing. But what happens when social content goes too far as a substitute for actual journalism? In an age when “everyone is the media,” the credibility bar drops fairly low, revealing biases, errors, and rumors that pass as fact. I’m grateful for the traditional press, battered, but unbowed, when it comes to sorting out what’s really happening.

Except when it isn’t. Occasionally the mainstream media is suckered by what they read on blogs and social media platforms. David Carr’s New York Times story on the TSA furor has me thinking about how things go haywire when social and traditional media, rather than complementing one another, join to fan a brushfire. It’s the worst of both worlds.

Carr recaps how the reaction to new TSA security procedures, including high-tech scans and thorough body pat-downs, blew up on Twitter, then mushroomed into a traditional news story, and spawned an opt-out movement…all turning out to be much ado about very little. The TSA struggled to respond to the furor. But, when the mainstream outlets went out to report the story of the airport protests, apparently there wasn’t one.

It reminded me of a larger news story. Remember the Iranian Twitter revolution that never happened? And, at the other end of the spectrum, a favorite recent blog topic, about the outcry around Gap’s new logo? The social media revolt was such that newspapers and other jumped on the story, and Gap was forced to backpedal and return to its original iconic look. Yet, afterwards, a customer survey showed that only 17 percent of Gap customers were even aware of the initial logo change. It was branding and social media insiders, and PR people like me, whose comments multiplied exponentially on the social web.

These examples raise “echo chamber” accusations about the social web and its so-called influencers. Who’s really out there? Is it twelve people with mirrors? Is what seems like digital “grassroots” just a a few plants treated with media miracle-gro?

Maybe it’s no surprise that those who tweet the loudest are heard. After all, social content sharers are prey to all the pitfalls of traditional press – wanting to be first with interesting items, needing news during a slow time (like a holiday week), wanting to stoke reader interest, retweets, and discussion.

To be fair, many readers of Carr’s TSA story hotly dispute his premise – that, in fact, there were few protests and little of note at major airports over Thanksgiving week. That’s a good thing. When controversy rages online, it’s a reminder of the diversity of opinion on the web, and an antidote to groupthink.

When we bother to look for it, that is. Maybe it’s a reminder for us to break out of our digital cliques and to try harder to avoid falling into a social/digital news feed of recycled ideas and commentary about commentary. The next post will explore ways to do that. Until then, enjoy this video about “old” media’s newfound fascination with it.

Did The Media Create Terry Jones?

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

In an interesting sidebar to the Terry Jones firestorm, web host Rackspace today shut down the pastor’s website for violating its acceptable use policy. A good move, I thought. Then I read criticism of the move, on the grounds that it gives Jones even more attention and may trample his right to free speech.

It’s a fair point. Not about free speech – no one’s muzzling Jones, and Rackspace is a private business in any event. But, every move seems to add fuel to the (threatened) fire. How did we get to this point? How could the news cycle over three days revolve around an obscure, small-town pastor with a tiny congregation and a few voices short of a full choir? Has Jones simply manipulated the press with manufactured controversy like a bottom-feeding publicist?

The blazing press reminded me that, after the events of 9/11, I had the grief-induced thought that there should be a media blackout on the attack and its perpetrators – laughable, impractical, and unconstitutional, of course, Yet, what is extremist behavior if not a transparent play for public attention? It’s PR, at the most primitive level.

So, should the press have ignored Jones? Could they have? Media pundits say that the warp speed of news today makes it impossible. They’re probably right, since the Associated Press announcement that it wouldn’t run images of the Koran-burning seemed to have no chilling effect whatever on the story. A Facebook page calling for a media blackout of the day garnered nearly 1000 likers, but not much attention, and even Secretary Hillary Clinton’s call for media restraint was drowned out.

And therein lies the problem.

With government’s leaders rushing to condemn Jones, the story grew arms, legs, and heads over the past week. It was a mistake for the President to have waded into the mess, and his comments seemed badly planned. Mr. Obama dismissed the whole thing as a “stunt,” then warned that it could put U.S. troops in harm’s way, giving it way to much gravity. General Petraus and Defense Secretary Gates got involved. Even Sarah Palin joined the chorus. No mainstream government or political figure could afford to refuse comment. Moral leadership, or personal branding? Both, I think.

So, what’s the media’s responsibility in a case like this? Emory Professor Hank Klibanoff argues that, in the digital age, journalists have a greater obligation to add perspective to their reporting. They should use the resources of the Web to add context and “proportion” to the story, like links to the global reaction from religious and political leaders to the pastor’s provocative remarks.

In the end, Jones is an irresistible – and mediagenic – symbol of a very real struggle. His actions come at the nexus of contradictory trends – nationalism, religious tolerance, anti-terrorism, and more. Well into the Internet age, the mainstream press needs to reinvent its role, one that increasingly includes curating, interpreting, and analyzing the news. But, it’s up to us to try to make sense of what’s happening around us, and our responsibility to speak, blog, advocate, or act, when things feel out of control. In an age where “everyone’s a member of the media,” everyone therefore has a responsibility to keep things in perspective.